Issues with glue

Hi everyone. I'm having problems when gluing paper patterns onto wood. I generally use pva glue, scrape it off and make sure each part of the wood is coated lightly, but I keep getting parts that sort of bubble, when you try to flatten them down the form a crease. It's really frustrating. I also have issues gluing fabric to wood, currently doing Cathy's flower shop. It's just it doesn't want to stick.